I live in Crimea and would like to briefly tell you how I became acquainted with the green men and how we were captured by them. I would like to tell you this story because mainland Ukraine keeps asking us why we did not resist.
This happened a few days before the “referendum.” I worked for, you could call it, a strategic enterprise. It was a regular working day, same routine as always. I was sitting in my office after lunch and suddenly I heard some sort of clicks. It wasn’t clear what they were. I came out of the office and saw people lying on the floor in the hallway, and a shadow passing into the reception area. I was frightened and locked the office door. A minute later I heard: “Open up, bitch, or I’ll shoot!” So I quietly approached the door and opened it. In front of me I saw a Kalashnikov and a green man.
In a second, the screaming man flew into the room (and I must say this was a professional operation, I didn’t even have time to react), grabbed me by the collar and threw me against the wall. I received the “honor” of being hit by the butt of a Kalashinkov for a reason unknown to me. I am a mere 50 kilograms in weight; he was three times larger. He was without a mask and in full uniform, even with grenades. He told me: “To the exit!” and pushed my back with the machine gun.
I was led into a small room, in which almost everybody that was in the building was sitting. There were few chairs, and almost everybody was standing. They took away our phones, turned off the lights and the Internet. They didn’t explain anything, and we were not permitted to speak either. Girls were accompanied to the toilet and the doors were kept open. They kept repeating that we should remain silent, and that they’ve seen women such as us before, the kind that wanted to blow them up. It seemed to me that these guys had had experience in hot spots.
Then, they examined our computers, probably to see if anybody posted to the Internet against this tyranny. The “self-defense” squads were running all around. These puny, albeit extremely satisfied, boys were clearly proud of themselves. They were on standby, just in case.
They detained us women for around 1.5 hours, then we were led out of the premises, while the men were kept there until evening. After they released us, I saw policemen in the distance, standing along the perimeter, peacefully watching the guys doing their “job”…
Only then did I realize that no one will not ask whether we want to join Russia or not. Believe me, the “referendum” was just a theatrical performance for the gawkers. Even if no one would have come, it would still be announced that the vote to join Russia was unanimous. Believe me, very few people came out to the vote. I watched out the window and asked others. Many who did not ignore the vote, voted against, but it did not have any meaning. So I would really like to ask my compatriots (yes, you are still compatriots!) to not unequivocally consider the population of Crimea to be traitors.
Source: Crimea SOS
Translated by Alya Shandra, edited by Olena Wawryshyn
